Letter | Myrtle Beach writer needs to learn about sweat tea’s diverse origin before mocking it

Writer doesn’t know sweat tea’s diverse history

As a newcomer to Myrtle Beach, I have enjoyed reading The Sun News until reading, in horror, the Mande Wilkes July 9 column, “As fools fly flags, media fabricates outrage.”

Wilkes is obviously unfamiliar with the saying, “If you propose to speak (write), is it true, is it necessary, it is kind?”

Her arguments were reductionistic, simplistic, embarrassing. She blasts Southern culture to include drinking sweet tea. I guess she must find the English a positively loathesome people because not only do they drink sugar with their tea, but some even add cream!

I am not a historian, but I think tea came south from Boston via England - after it came from the Orient. Tea was, if nothing else, a luxury food item that had an entire industry built around it in the form of fine china. But then maybe Wilkes drinks her beverages from paper cups.

I digress. How she dares to give priority to fiscal responsibility over the deaths of innocent people is ludicrous, not to mention her self-serving remarks comparing herself to writers at the New York Times. My, my, my!

I was proud to stand in front of Emanuel A.M.E. Church on Friday when the flag was taken down, to be there with my beautiful African American brothers and sisters. I will cherish the memory as one of the most poignant in my life.

This story was originally published July 14, 2015 at 6:14 AM with the headline "Letter | Myrtle Beach writer needs to learn about sweat tea’s diverse origin before mocking it."